Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Institut Pertanian Bogor(Leo Wibisono, Andini Widya Astuti, Dewi Fitri Yani)won the best novice team award in the 14th Indonesian Varsities English Debate after beating Universitas Brawijaya B (Dungga Nur Prayogo, Aditya Janu, Nur Lutfi Hidayatullah) in the final debate of a brand new category in IVED that gives stage to teams with first or second year students who have never broken into the knockout rounds of a major Indonesian tournament. IPB successfully defended the motion that "This House Opposes Giving Amnesty to Evil Regimes Even if They Step Down".

Rifan Ibnu Rahman from Institut Teknologi Bandung C won the best speaker award in the 14th Indonesian Varsities English Debate, ending a streak unique to IVED. He is the first male speaker to take that honor as female debaters topped the tab in the past 13 IVEDs, a phenomenon without match in any other major debating tournament in Indonesia.

Universitas Gadjah Mada A (Eldhianto Jusuf, Urfi Syifa, Bella Chyntiara) unanimously defeated Universitas Indonesia B (Dennys Kapa, Irene Severina, Nurul Praharso) in the final debate of the 14th IVED at Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar. UGM A debated for the motion that "This House Would Financially Support Pregnant Underage Mothers". Eldhianto and Urfi were finalists of last year's IVED and won JOVED six months ago. They are now part of the very small club of debaters who have won JOVED and IVED championships back-to-back.

Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang will host the 15th IVED next year after getting more support in the Council Meeting last night than the other bids from Universitas Atma Jaya Jakarta and Institut Manajemen Telkom Bandung. Malang has never been the venue for IVED or JOVED before although schools from this pleasant East Java city, especially Universitas Brawijaya, have been participating in English debate tournaments even before 1998.

#4 Universitas Indonesia B (Dennys Kapa, Irene Severina, Nurul Praharso) and #3 Universitas Gadjah Mada A (Eldhianto Jusuf, Urfi Syifa, Bella Chyntiara) will battle it out in the final of the 14th IVED after respectively beating #1 UI A and #10 Universitas Bina Nusantara in 3-2 split debates in the semifinal round. Eldhianto and Urfi were part of the UGM teams that last year won JOVED and reached the final of IVED while Irene was in the UI team that won JOVED 2009.

Final Motion: This House Would Financially Support Underage Pregnant Mothers

The IVED Council Meeting last night did not produce any result on who will host next year's tournament. It will reconvene tonight after the break announcement to make a final decision. Universitas Atma Jaya Jakarta, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang and Institut Manajemen Telkom Bandung are bidding.

Teams from Universitas Indonesia broke first, fourth and fifth into the knockout rounds of IVED 2011. Universitas Gadjah Mada squads were ranked third and seventh while all three teams from Institut Teknologi Bandung also secured their way to the Octofinals by breaking second, sixth and ninth. This means half of the top 16 spots are taken by Indonesia's top three state universities and debating powerhouses. However, this also means novice teams from these schools are not allowed to proceed to the Novice Semifinals. Congratulations to Universitas Hasanuddin A for taking the eighth rank and breaking the UI-ITB-UGM streak.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Six rounds of IVED 2011 are over. Break results will be announced tomorrow. However, the tabbies already know who is getting one of the most important prizes in the tournament - the Best Speaker award. This information will be kept secret until the final announcements on Jan. 25. One interesting fact is no male debater has become the top debater in IVED. No other major tournament in Indonesia has this phenomenon. (See this blog's IVED page). 13 IVEDs, 13 female best speakers, will this streak continue this year?

The fifth and sixth rounds of IVED were silent rounds. Adjudicators were not allowed to leak the results of the debates. Impromptu motions on economy were used in round 5 while the last preliminary round was a prepared one with Indonesia-specific topics. UGM A and UI A, which have been performing very well throughout the preliminaries, faced each other in round 6. This may be the top two teams in the tournament. All teams have to wait until tomorrow night for the break results.

The host of the next IVED will be decided tonight in the Council Meeting. Current host Universitas Hasanuddin has received praise for the 3-star boutique hotel accommodation and grand opening ceremony but debaters have complained about the occasional delays and bad toilet rooms.

IVED 2011's fourth round used prepared motions all-related to homosexuality. It just finished right before lunchtime after the day started late. UGM entered round 4 as the only university with two teams with perfect scores (3VP). UI B ended that by beating UGM B in a close match. UI A are still keeping a clean sheet with 4 VPs and a high margin point after winning big against UNSOED A.

The competition is still anyone's game with two more rounds to go and many teams having 2-3 VPs. Usually, teams need at least 4 VPs after 6 rounds to break into the knockouts. The break can be known at the end of today's debates but it will not be announced until tomorrow night after excursions.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

The first day of preliminaries at IVED 2011 ended two hours late around 8.30 pm. Three rounds passed with several top-seeded teams still boasting clean sheets, including UI A, UGM A and UGM B. Round 1 had impromptu motions on education, round 2 fielded prepared motions on environment and the last round of the day used another set of impromptu motions under the title "behind bars". Three more rounds will take place tomorrow.

The country's leading media outlets -Kompas, Media Indonesia, Republika and Detik.com- this week ran stories on Universitas Indonesia's achievements in the 2011 World Debating Universities Championships in Botswana. Riza Aryani from UI was the 3rd Best Speaker in WUDC's English as Foreign Language (EFL) category and her partnership with Dyah Ayunico Ramadhani broke into the knockout round of WUDC's English as Second Language (ESL) category.

Some outlets exaggerated the results calling them "juara debat dunia". To put it into correct perspective, the UI team grabbed 14 points and finished at rank 150 on the main tab and the actual world champion was Australia's Monash University. Still, Riza's achievements were very respectable. Christian Leonardo from Binus International won more points than Riza and was the best Indonesian speaker in WUDC Bostwana but he was registered as an ESL debater. No Indonesian speaker managed to finish in the top 5 speakers in the ESL category while three Indonesians, including Riza, got into the top 5 speakers in the EFL class.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Indonesian Varsities English Debate for the first time since its conception in 1998 will have separate knockout rounds for novice teams in its 14th run, which will start on Jan. 21, 2011 in Makassar. The best four novice teams on the tab that fail to proceed to the main octofinals will go into the 'Novice Semifinals'. The two winning teams from that round will battle it out in the 'Novice Final', which will take place simultaneously with the main quarterfinals. Here are the requirements for teams to be considered as 'Novice'.

1. All three members of the team should be first or second year students
2. All three members of the team have never broken into the knockouts of any major national tournament
3. All three members of the team should pass the interview phase which will verify their eligibility

Friday, January 7, 2011

The 14th Indonesian Varsities English Debate will take place January 21-25, 2011 in Makassar, South Sulawesi hosted by Universitas Hasanuddin. Here are the 54 teams that will fight for the crown in Indonesia's premier debating competition.